


dissonance

by gossamerthoughts



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry Allen/Iris West Wedding, F/M, Past Barry Allen/Iris West, The West Family (The Flash TV 2014), Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24906307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gossamerthoughts/pseuds/gossamerthoughts
Summary: Iris and Nora can’t help but clash, and the only word that comes to Barry’s mind is “dissonance.” Maybe they weren’t meant to be in harmony. (It's a happy ending for everyone though!) Hints of SnowBarry, season 5 AU. Oneshot.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen/Iris West
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	dissonance

**_dissonance:_ ** _a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements._

* * *

“Dad, I had something more… epic in mind. So I asked Cisco to whip up a little something…” Nora looked at Barry with puppy dog eyes that said, _I’m sorry but also I’m really excited and you’re excited too right??_

It was the look Barry himself had often given his friends and family… so he had no choice but to sigh and nod.

“So that’s what that ramp is for,” he grumbled half-heartedly.

It was hard to be mad at Nora when she was so like him.

Even when she accidentally ran over Ralph. Well, when she accidentally let the driverless car run over Ralph.

At least Ralph had his super-stretchy powers — and at least Nora had saved all the “innocent bystanders” AKA the red blocks used for training _and_ rescued the mannequin from the car.

Barry had to admit, he was proud of his daughter. _I did good, right?_ her eyes seemed to ask.

He gave her a half nod in response to her wordless question.

“I’m so sorry, Ralph!” She turned to the man now laying on the floor, groaning. He pulled his headphones out from his ears.

“I was doing my morning meditation. But it’s hard to find your zen when you _literally got run over by a car._ ” He pushed his way out of the circle, shaking his head, but Barry knew he wouldn’t be pissy for long.

“I’m sorry!” Nora repeated.

She was sorrier when Iris strode up, however. If Iris was a meta, Barry would be very, _very_ scared by now.

As it was, Cisco threw Nora under the bus and made his escape — _you see, I waaaas gonna work on that satellite because facial recognition is important but Nora asked me to help her with training so I had to drive a car off a ramp…_

Iris spun on her daughter, hands on her hips. “Excuse me, so you _pulled Cisco away_ from something important for _a training exercise_?”

If this were a cartoon, steam would be flying out of Iris’s ears. Barry wanted to speed away ASAP, but knew he couldn’t leave his daughter to Iris’s wrath.

“I….” Barry simply shook his head at Iris, then looked at Nora helplessly.

“Well, yeah,” Nora said, unfazed. “Because I need to work on my badass speedster skills before going back to the future,” she said, as if it were obvious.

Barry knew Iris _did not_ like being talked to like that. Ever.

Iris didn’t break her gaze or change her expression. Her eyes bored into Nora’s as she said, “ _Barry?_ ”

Barry rolled his eyes. Here it was. “Yeaaah?” he asked, looking skyward. Maybe Supergirl would come save him.

“There could be a meta threat at _any moment,_ ” Iris started.

“Yeah,” Barry interrupted, turning his gaze downward.

“And we are still running blind without satellites,” she finished.

“I know, I know,” he said, shaking his head. He looked sideways at Iris, giving her another eye roll.

Iris could tell he was biting his tongue, holding back from saying what he really wanted to say. “Guys, what is going on here?”

Barry and Nora looked at each other, then at Iris. “There _is_ something we need to tell everybody,” Barry said finally with a sigh.

Nora looked at her mom with a look of… was it _pity_ Iris detected in her daughter’s eyes?

_What the hell was going on?_

* * *

Iris never got her answer. The monitors pinged and she looked up at her family. “Someone stole a Monet.”

“At 10AM? That’s bold,” Barry remarked, brow furrowed. “I’m on it.”

He caught the guy, but — “He doesn’t have the painting on him.”

“That’s ‘cause he handed it off to someone else!” Nora exclaimed. “I’m on it; I can stop a guy on a motorcycle —”

“No, Nora,” Iris began, but she heard the telltale _click_ of Nora’s comms going offline.

“Tell me you didn’t just tune me out, missy,” she muttered angrily under her breath, knowing full well that her daughter did and couldn’t hear her.

* * *

**_20 minutes later_ **

“Nora! You could’ve _killed_ someone; that’s why you have us in your ear, to help keep you and others safe —”

“No, mom! I’m sick of it! You’ve been sitting behind your desk, telling me ‘no’ my whole life and _I am sick of it_!”

“Why don’t you like me, Nora? I’m your mother!” Iris hissed.

“Because, _Mom_ , you and Dad got divorced before he disappeared!” Nora shouted.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and faced the mother-daughter duo, mouths agape.

“What?” Iris demanded.

Barry scrubbed a hand over his face. It was going to be another long day.

“Can we have the room?” Iris asked. Everyone knew it was a command hidden as a question. Barry tried to walk out too (stupidly, but worth a try), but Iris grabbed his arm. “Of course you’re staying — she’s our _daughter_.”

He resisted the urge to scrub his hand over his face again. He knew it was one of his biggest tells.

* * *

“Does this have anything to do with what you guys had to tell me earlier?” Iris demanded, equal amounts fire and hurt blazing in her eyes.

Father and daughter looked at each other guiltily, then at Iris with the same sheepish-sorry-puppy dog eyes that Iris had come to know so well.

She sighed, all the fight taken out of her. “Why?” she asked Nora softly.

“Why what, Mom?”

“Why did your father and I get divorced?”

Nora shrugged, her hazel eyes shining. “I’m not sure. You never told me why and Grandpa Joe always looks so sad when I ask that I stopped asking. Honestly, you never talk about Dad much in the future…”

Iris turned her gaze to Barry. “Do you have any reason why?” Her tone isn’t accusatory. It’s almost professional, the journalist side of her taking over.

He ruffled his hand through his hair in turn. “I — Iris, you know I can’t predict the future. Not really.” His gaze turns more serious; he casts a look at his daughter so quickly that Iris is almost sure she’s imagining it. “Iris, do you maybe think we got married too quickly?”

“Is this a conversation we should be having in front of Nora?”

“Maybe not, but I think we need to have this conversation.” Barry twisted his wedding ring around his finger. It felt like it’s digging into his skin, felt like the very metal itself is burning into his flesh. “I had my doubts after I came out of the Speedforce, but I thought that this was my destiny because it was written on the paper. I thought that I was finally getting what I wanted — you — because I was a hero. Iris, you’re my best friend and you always will be. But sometimes I think we were better off as friends. I’m not my best self when I’m in a relationship with you; I push my friends aside, I’m not thinking clearly, and I don’t even feel like myself sometimes.”

Iris’s mouth fell open in a shocked “oh.”

Nora simply looked at her feet.

A heavy silence hung in the room; Barry wished he could phase out of the room and maybe honestly onto another Earth altogether. He _hated_ this, hated hurting Iris, hated saying these words aloud even as he knew them to be the truth.

“But if we don’t stay together now… what happens to Nora?” Iris asked softly.

“Mom, don’t worry about me,” Nora replied tearfully. “I know you love Dad, I know that you never meant to hurt him, I know you love _me_. I’m sorry we never got along. But I’ll be fine. I’ll exist in some version as Dad’s future kid…” She looked bravely at her parents, wishing that she could, for once, have her happily-ever-after.

Barry’s shoulders seemed to hunch even further, as if he were still carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe he was. He reached his arms out and embraced his family, holding them tight. They were on the brink of a different timeline, on the precipice of a different future, and no one knew how this would turn out.

“Maybe it’s for the best,” Iris sighed, her voice muffled by Barry’s shoulder. “Bar, I love you but maybe I was trying to force things after Eddie. I honestly wanted to be a part of Team Flash, and I don’t have superpowers. So it was like you were my only way in…” She trailed off, tears leaking down her smooth face. Barry’s flannel shirt caught them, but he stepped out of the embrace and ran a finger down her cheek, wiping the trails away.

“So is this goodbye?” he asked tiredly.

Nora held her parents’ hands in her own. “I love you both so much. And you are the bravest people I know for even admitting what you just did, and for all you do for the city. I can’t wait to meet you in a different lifetime…” her fingers were beginning to fade, her very essence disappearing just as Eobard Thawne’s had what seemed like a lifetime ago.

Iris and Barry had matching tear tracks coursing down their faces as they watched their daughter — the human _they_ made in the future — disappear from existence.

“Iris… Team Flash is always happy to have you, even if we’re not together,” Barry said, breaking the silence.

She sniffled and curled into his shoulder. “Thank you, Bar.”

“You have to see this—” Cisco ran into the room, his eyes wild. He stops short and seeing his friends crying quietly. “Are you… where’s Nora? Is this a bad time?”

His best friend looked at him, his green eyes a little unreadable. “Nora’s gone. Iris and I — we… we’re breaking up, and that erased Nora from existence for now.”

“Ah… that might… okay, that makes sense now.”

Iris just _looked_ at him.

Cisco quickly backtracked. “I mean — okay, nevermind. Just follow me. You’ll see.” He almost _ran_ out of the room, Barry and Iris close at his heels. He tapped a hand onto the brick and they enter the Time Vault, a little blinded by the bright whiteness of it all.

“Hello, Gideon,” Barry said.

“Hello, Flash.”

“Show us the article!” Cisco exclaimed, unable to hold back.

The article from the future appears on the screen, but something is different. In fact, a lot of things are different.

The headline no longer screams, FLASH VANISHES IN CRISIS.

Instead, it says, FLASH SAVES THE MULTIVERSE IN CRISIS.

And the byline? Written by Iris Queen.

Barry and Iris gaped at the article, shock coursing through their veins. “Not… Oliver Queen?” Iris asked faintly.

“You always did think he was hot.” Barry smirked, sounding a little like his old self.

But both were interrupted by Cisco throwing his arms around them. “BARRY! This means you NO LONGER VANISH, dude! As in you’re okay! As in HUZZAH!”

“Okay, man, tone it down a bit,” Barry chided, but his green eyes were shining too brightly to be taken seriously.

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, the West-Allens (or the former West-Allens) cried. But this time, it was from happiness.

* * *

**_1 year later_ **

Barry grins at Caitlin, eyes bright as he drinks in her. _Her_ , in a white dress that skims her curves and spills down behind her. She’s clutching a bouquet of Flash-red roses and her lips are painted a beautiful pink and he can’t wait to plant a kiss on them in front of all their family and friends.

She smiles right back, relishing the fact that he looks like a kid waiting to go on a rollercoaster ride. In a way, maybe he was. Marriage was like a rollercoaster, some would say.

Digg’s smiling at them both, his usually stoic face creasing in happy wrinkles. “You ready?” he asks softly.

Both Barry and Caitlin nod, and the ceremony begins. As Digg begins speaking, a little wary of Earth-X Nazis, it seems (they all were, really), the couple’s eyes are absolutely glued to each other.

They say their vows; there’s not a dry eye in the audience. Iris full-on starts crying from her position behind Caitlin as her bridesmaid, her heart full for her ex-husband, current best-friend, and surrogate brother. Next to her, a blond man who looks eerily like Oliver Queen offers her a handkerchief. She takes it with a teary smile. “I’m Robert Queen, Oliver’s cousin,” the man offers helpfully, giving her a grin that seems as bright as all the stars in the multiverse. “Some say I’m the younger, more handsome one,” he continues with a wink. “You can call me Robbie.”

She faintly hears Oliver _hmph_ and elbow his cousin (definitely _not_ proper best man behavior), but Iris ignores it.

In fact, she feels as if _she’s_ the one that was struck by lightning, not Barry. It was as if all the pieces of her life finally began to fit together, as if all the gossamer threads of the multiverse, of fate, of destiny, had pulled her to this moment, to this man, to this future.

She gives him a blinding bright smile in return, her full red lips drawing his rapt attention. “I’m Iris West,” she replies. “Thanks for the handkerchief — you’re my hero.”

As Barry and Caitlin kiss, the audience actually _standing up and applauding_ , Iris and Robbie’s eyes meet — warm brown and blue — and they share a hopeful smile.

Later on, Barry wraps his arm around his new wife — _wife, I’ll never get tired of calling her that,_ he thinks. “I love you, Cait,” he whispers. It’s indescribable, this feeling he has. It’s like something was missing for his whole life, but now, it’s complete. He knows Cait would laugh at his corniness if he said it aloud (he basically said that in his vows, anyway), but this feeling barely seems real. He’s surrounded by his family, his friends, his beautiful wife; the city is safe and this intimate wedding seems like something out of a fairytale.

“I love you too, Barry Allen,” Caitlin whispers right back, her brown eyes holding so much love that Barry finds himself a little breathless. She eyes him like she knows exactly what he’s thinking, and honestly, he wouldn’t be surprised if she did. She’s always been able to read him well, through his hurt, his anger, his joy, his guilt, his pain… all of it.

“Shall we dance, Mrs. Allen?” The words sound delicious on his lips, his mouth wrapping around them like they were meant to be. _Mrs. Allen._

“I would love to, Mr. Allen,” Caitlin replies, taking his hand. They get up and make their way to the dance floor, not noticing a petite girl with bright green eyes and softly curling brown hair watching them tearily.

“Hey, that’s a cool white streak you got in your hair,” Wally West says to her, nudging her shoulder comfortably. “I’m Wally — Iris and Barry’s brother.”

The girl looks at him and a smile breaks across her face. Wally can’t help but think it looks strangely familiar. “I’m Nora,” she replies. “Nice to meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> The first scene is based off of a deleted scene from Season 5, in which there were many eye rolls from both Barry & Nora toward Iris. Robbie's personality is based off of real-life Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell's cousin. Because Iris def does have heart eyes for Oliver. AND NORA — I do love Nora although Season 5 seemed to just be kinda ugh IMO — so here she is.


End file.
